In Brazil, Passover Holdovers

By JOAN NATHAN

Published: April 20, 2005

ONE recent morning, the three young daughters of Jill Weinstein and Luiz Steinberg played hide-and-seek beneath the mango trees at the Centro Israelita de Pernambuco, a community center here that houses a synagogue and a school. Awaiting them inside, for when they were done, were coconut-filled sweets, potato pies and other Brazilian goodies, some made by their grandmother Mathilda Steinberg.

At the Passover Seder at the home of Ms. Weinstein and Mr. Steinberg on Saturday night, the food Mrs. Steinberg prepares will reflect, as food does all over the world, family history and local culture. It is believed that the first Jews in Brazil, some 300 families from Spain and Portugal, arrived here, in this northeastern port, in 1631, seeking safe haven from the Spanish Inquisition. Hundreds of years later, in the 1920's, Jews arrived from what is now Belarus, fleeing persecution, pogroms and forced conscription in the Bolshevik army. The 1,200 or so Jews here now are more Russian in heritage than Mediterranean, and so is their cuisine.

It is in close-knit communities like this one that classic Jewish recipes, long forgotten elsewhere, can still be found, altered somewhat by the use of local ingredients. Most of Recife's Jews speak Portuguese and a little Hebrew (with the older ones speaking some Yiddish). They hold on to the recipes of their past much as the Jews of Montreal hold on to their pierogi and smoked beef, and the Jews of South Africa, originally from Lithuania, hold on to their stuffed matzo balls.

At the Weinstein-Steinberg Seder, traditional Eastern European gefilte fish, chicken soup and pot roast will tell this family's history. But the gefilte fish will be made with snapper, hake, grouper or whiting, all local fish, instead of the traditional mix of carp, whitefish and pike.

Other dishes, too, will have a Brazilian touch. The haroseth, the fruit and nut blend that symbolizes the mortar that Jews used when they were slaves, will be made with raisins, dates, apples, walnuts and sometimes cashew nuts, instead of only nuts and apples. As a main course Mrs. Steinberg, who with her sister Silva will do most of the cooking, will serve what she calls holiday fish, poached with wine, cilantro and oregano, typical flavors of this coastal province.

''I have integrated the herbs and spices that are here into what my grandmother used to cook in Europe,'' said Mrs. Steinberg, 76, whose grandparents first settled in Brazil in the 1920's.

Her deft hands shaped a fluden (called fladen or floden in some Yiddish dialects), a fruit-layered sweet resembling baklava that is seldom seen in the United States. It is usually made with a paper-thin crust, but at Passover Mrs. Steinberg uses a thick cashew nut matzo meal batter with a guava-paste filling. It is a recipe she learned from a Brazilian friend whose parents came to Bah?from Belarus.

Beiguele (pronounced BAY- guh-leh) is another word seldom heard in the United States; it means small bread in Yiddish. Mrs. Steinberg's are made by twisting paper-thin dough so that it can hold a savory filling, similar to a knish. In Recife, beigueles are filled with coalho, a handmade farmer cheese from northern Brazil.

Mrs. Steinberg and her friends, the tradition-bearers of this community, make these signature dishes by the hundreds for brises, bar mitzvahs and weddings. They also prepare them for an annual fund-raiser at the Centro Israelita.

''People look for Rose's grape torte, Silva's onion torte, herring or fluden, or my mother-in-law's gefilte fish,'' Jill Weinstein said. Ms. Weinstein, an American born in Palm Beach, met Luiz Steinberg in Israel and followed him to Brazil. When Americans visit, she serves as an interpreter. ''This is the time when the mothers can show off what they do. All my husband's friends maneuver to buy their favorite dishes.''

The Jewish community in Recife is too small for stores to carry many Passover supplies, so ingredients come from S?Paulo or Israel. The people who pay dues to the Centro Israelita receive a free box of matzos, but they must order wine and matzo meal.

Since horseradish root is not found in Brazil, Mrs. Steinberg uses wasabi powder mixed with beets, sugar, salt and vinegar for the bitter herb at the Passover Seder. When her grandmother arrived here, she used mustard greens instead.

Many Brazilians are discovering their Jewish roots ''as descendants from Portuguese Jews forcibly converted to Christianity during the Inquisition,'' said Regina Igel, professor of Brazilian and Latin American Jewish Literature at the University of Maryland in College Park. ''There are hundreds of them who are joining synagogues or forming their own synagogues.''

And learning about culinary traditions. To preserve Recife's Jewish food customs, Mrs. Steinberg and some of her friends at Na'amat, a Jewish women's organization, held a series of classes and made a pamphlet of their best recipes. Before Passover they showed children in the Jewish school how to make lahmaniot, rolls that American Jews know as Passover popovers, as well as a Brazilian Passover cake made with apples, bananas, oranges and matzo meal.